


Intermissions

by inelegantly (Lir)



Series: SWAG 2016 Fills [1]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, Ficlet Collection, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-05-16 06:11:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5817184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/pseuds/inelegantly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of otherwise unrelated short fics written from prompts posted during the 2016 Sports Anime Winter Games. Pairing and character tags will be added as necessary.</p><p><b>Chapter 1:</b> Nozomi/Eli, The Winner<br/><b>Chapter 2:</b> Nico, Ambition<br/><b>Chapter 3:</b> Eli, Remoteness<br/><b>Chapter 4:</b> Eli/Umi, Reliance<br/><b>Chapter 5:</b> Maki, Starfire Heart<br/><b>Chapter 6:</b> Eli/Nico, Hard Work<br/><b>Chapter 7:</b> Nico/Maki, Cute Habits<br/><b>Chapter 8:</b> Hanayo/Maki, Time Together<br/><b>Chapter 9:</b> Nico/Maki, Fashion Choices</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Nozomi/Eli :: The Winner

**Author's Note:**

> As this is a collection of wildly varying, not-interconnected short fics, I want to make it as reader-friendly as possible. Each chapter will be titled with the rating, pairing or characters involved, and a short individual title indicative of its contents. The primary summary for the collection will also be updated with this information as new chapters are added.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt this is written from was: 
> 
> _"Both of us want to be the winner, but there can only be one_   
>  _So I'm gonna fight, gonna give it my all_   
>  _Gonna make you fall, gonna sock it to you"_

-

"Nozomi!" Eli yelps, a cry that breaks off quickly into laughter. 

She's on her back too quickly to do anything but yell, Nozomi's arms pressing on her arms, Nozomi's weight pressing on her hips. Nozomi only giggles in response, her face breaking into that trademark mischievous grin. Eli makes a weak attempt at pushing back, undermined by her own helpless laughing. 

"Get off of me!" she says, even as the limpness of her body does little to lend credence to the protest. 

"Nope," Nozomi says. "I've won this one fair and square, Elichi, and now _you_ owe me a boon." 

Nozomi's fingers are warm around Eli's wrists; Eli's chest heaves breathlessly even as her giggles die away to nothing. She pulls at Nozomi's hands, experimentally, but Nozomi's fingers hold fast. She clucks her tongue, shaking her head in affectionate disapproval. 

Seeing that she won't evade so easily, Eli asks, "And just what might this 'boon' consist of?" 

"It's simple," Nozomi says. "Kiss me." 

"Is that all?" Eli replies, already leaning up to meet Nozomi's mouth with her own. 

Maddeningly, Nozomi pulls back, leaning away just far enough that Eli cannot get leverage enough to stretch up and catch her. She falls back to the mattress, the smallest perplexed pout beginning to crease her features. 

"Ah-Ah," Nozomi chides. "That would be too easy." 

Eli's eyes only just narrow, scrutinizing Nozomi to pick apart what she's playing at. If it's a challenge Nozomi is issuing her... She's never risen to less. Her wrists twist within Nozomi's grip, and her ankle loops up behind Nozomi's knee. With a fluid twist of her body, Eli rolls them both over on the bed. 

"I wouldn't want to bore you," she says, as she leans down to press the gentlest of kisses to Nozomi's lips. Now that she has the upper hand, she uses that to her advantage, depositing only the lightest brushes of lips against Nozomi's waiting mouth. Her forearms press down across Nozomi's arms, even as her wrists remain held. 

"Kiss me again," Nozomi whispers, stroking the insides of Eli's wrists with her thumbs. 

Something inside Eli softens, at the intimate tone of Nozomi's words, breathed between them as gently as a sigh. Much as she tries to hold herself aloof, it's impossible to resist Nozomi when she employs the cleverest of her charms — or worse, when she falls back on simple sincerity.

"I don't know," Eli says, her voice coming out nearly as soft. "We may need to revise exactly who the 'winner' is in this situation, before we do something like that." 

"You're always the winner in my heart," Nozomi proclaims. 

And though it's so _cheesy,_ Eli can't help but laugh again, laugh loud and bright before she leans down to meet Nozomi's mouth again in a headier kiss. Nozomi presses up into her, eager, and Eli thinks that even without the pronouncement — if this isn't winning, she'd rather not see the alternative.

-

-


	2. Nico :: Ambition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt this ficlet was written from is: "In the darkness, only ambition will guide you." -STAR WARS: The Old Republic trailer

-

The x-acto knife slices easily through paper, dragged along its course by the deft touch of Nico's fingers. The negative space cuts away, leaving behind only a smiling face.

Nico's smiling face. 

Her hands pluck up the cutout, balancing it delicately between the pads of her fingertips. It only costs so much, paying for pictures at those studios usually reserved for family portraits. It's only a small dent in her allowance; a small slice through her pride. Nico's whole body shudders, and she struggles for that moment not to crush her own head in the trembling grasp of her hand. 

She hasn't given up on her dream yet.

All around her room are posters and pictures, plastered with the bright-eyed faces of smiling idols. All around her room is _her_ face, staring back at her from a million doctored scenes. She pulls the latest poster across her desk and slaps down the cutout of her head against that other girl's body. Pretty idols, pretty bodies, pretty _futures_ for girls far luckier than her. It isn't as if she doesn't deserve it. She'll do whatever she must, to keep her dream alive. 

To keep her image alive, the one she painted for her younger siblings when she was _stupid_ enough to think that good fortune came to all who dreamed. She wants it more than anyone, thirsts for it, hungers for it from so deep in her bones that she can feel the hot lights of that stage on her eyelids when she closes them in repose. She _breathes_ for the fame of stardom, and still it isn't enough. 

But a little work with scotch tape, and the illusion comes through just as well. 

Nico stares down at the image she's manufactured, believing for just that moment that it could truly be her dancing on that stage. She can taste it on her tongue, feel her mouth forming the words, _Oh, it's nothing, not for Nico-Nico-nii, the most beautiful idol in the world,_ can imagine what it might feel like, to earn credit for all her hard work. 

She has no illusions about the effort stardom costs, now. It's blood and sweat and breaking herself down to tears, it's breaking her body down to learn the choreography, to master a new set of moves. It's more than anyone is willing to do with her, let alone for her. That's why she's Nico-Nico-nii, the greatest, most beautiful idol in the world — Nico alone, because counting on someone else is what breaks dreams down. 

She smooths her hands across the front of the altered poster, pushes herself up on her palms from the desk.

It might be fake now, but one day it won't be. No one wants fame more than Nico, and ambition is what true dreams are made from. 

-

-


	3. Eli :: Remoteness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt this was written from is: "This is the secret of the stars, I tell myself. In the end, we are alone. No matter how close you seem, no one else can touch you."

-

After her first week of university, Eli comes home to the new apartment she hasn't yet fully furnished, puts a kettle on at the small electric range she hasn't gotten used to, and sinks down on the floor — because the couch she's been given is too forgiving a surface to sit on, after the day she's had. 

Her classes are the least of her worries.

Eli has always been a diligent student, aware of the expectations placed upon her by the courses she's taking and more than willing to rise toward those goals and surpass them. She expected university to be much the same. And it is — she sits in lectures, and takes notes, and listens on as new expectations are laid out before her, plain and true. 

But then the professor will pause for a breath, and Eli will look around her, and she will find that she's... Alone. No Nozomi subtly nudging her from the seat behind, no Nico scribbling furiously in a notebook upon discovering her grades have dropped and she needs to catch up. No Umi catching her before the day begins to ask about the steps of one of their dance numbers, no Honoka grabbing her for lunch and insisting they eat outside, outside where the air is fresh! No... Mu's, interrupting her steady routine with their own contributions. 

It isn't so different from when Eli first came to Japan, burying her nose in her studies and not troubling herself overmuch with socialization. It isn't different — but it also isn't remotely the same. 

The teakettle whistles from the other room, and for a long moment, Eli considers not getting up to answer it. What use has she, for a cup of hot water with some leaves floating in it? What comfort will that be, when what she misses is the companionship of high school friends she never meant to leave behind? 

Eli tells herself, as she pushes slowly to her feet, that it isn't that her friends have left her. Disbanding mu's was never meant to be an ending — more of a beginning, for whatever wonderful things each of their nine might accomplish once let free to act on her own. Eli pours hot water from the kettle over tea leaves, and finds herself humming the opening bars of Susume Tomorrow softly to herself. 

The tune itself starts off slow, but once Eli gets past the first chorus, she realizes she's smiling. 

As lonely as she feels now, her friends haven't left her. As different as university feels, she need not sideline herself to the background, to being out of place. Each new day is an opportunity for her to do something different — and though she might be alone at her new school now, it is entirely within her power to change it. 

Eli believed once that she was above such things, removed from the mundane, casual influences of her peers. But Nozomi had changed that, Honoka had changed that, _all_ of mu's had proven that no one is truly as remote as they seem. 

Eli closes her hands around her mug, moves out to her new living room, and seats herself on the couch — a plush, forgiving object, ideal for relaxing, and for making plans for the future. 

-

-


	4. Eli/Umi :: Reliance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt this was written from is: "I'd just like some talking between Umi and Eli, possibly after Eli graduates, about future plans and general bonding. Umi having a crush on Eli would be cute but not necessary."

-

"How do you do it?" Umi asks, from her seat on Eli's couch. 

It's one of a limited number of furniture items in the apartment, something Eli apologizes for every time she lets Umi in at the door. It's been three times so far, all in the month since Eli has moved into her new apartment, and even to Umi's proper sensibilities, that seems like precious little time to fill an apartment with more than the necessities. 

"Do what?" Eli asks, from the little kitchen alcove where she's putting the kettle on for tea. She's just barely visible given Umi's line of sight, presenting little glimpses of her bobbing ponytail as she moves back and forth in front of the tiny stove. "If you mean the tea, I'm afraid the answer is simply practice, and I wouldn't say I'm an especially good hand at brewing it." 

Umi is so surprised by the dry humor that for a long moment, she simply cannot manage a reply. 

Eli finishes tending to things in the kitchen, and walks out to take a seat beside Umi on the couch. Suddenly Umi's side is very warm, heated by the gentle proximity of Eli's body, and her tongue does her few favors in unsticking itself from her mouth. 

"I doubt what you meant was really the tea," Eli reminds her. 

"No," Umi agrees. "I wanted to know how you _do_ it, managing all the things that you did at Otonokizaka? You were president of the entire student council body, and you never seemed to have any trouble." 

"Good organization," Eli says. "But more than that, having a lot of good help works wonders. Why — are you having trouble with the council already?" 

"It's just..." Umi starts to say, trailing off in embarrassment at the realization that she's _whining,_ she's complaining to Eli about pointless, trivial things, compared to the sorts of new things Eli must be experiencing, having her own apartment and starting at the university. She abruptly feels incredibly guilty. "It's not that I'm having trouble. I'm certain it isn't nearly as big a deal as I'm making it out to be." 

"But it's bothering you," Eli surmises. "Which means it's important enough to talk about." 

"I'm not even president of the council," Umi says, reminding herself to not look away, reminding herself to keep meeting Eli's steady, cool gaze. "I'm the vice president, a position I have learned entails chasing after every other member of the council simply in order to make certain the work is getting done, and that is _before_ I get to the tasks I've assigned myself, which take an awfully large amount of time. When you were president, you never seemed this..." 

"Frazzled?" Eli supplies, when Umi doesn't finish quickly enough. "Congratulations. You've become the good help I was talking about." 

For a moment Umi simply starts at her, blindsided that Eli might _compliment_ her for being overwhelmed. But then Eli laughs, warmly, not unkindly, and places her hand overtop Umi's where her fingers have curled too tightly around her knee. 

She startles, jumping underneath Eli's hand, but her fingers do unclench from their squeezing. When she glances into Eli's face again, Eli is smiling at her. 

"The thing about being president," she says, "is that you never do all of the work yourself. The mark of a good leader is knowing when to delegate, and when to rely on other people. Honoka I'm sure is a very enthusiastic president, with lots of good ideas that she's eager to execute. But you're a very good second in command, and you're the one Honoka will want to delegate to first. You shouldn't sell yourself short simply because your title rests underneath hers." 

"That's..." Umi starts to say, pursing her lips into a tight line. "It isn't wrong. I suppose." 

"I know it isn't," Eli says. "When I was president, I had Nozomi to rely on, and I had everyone from mu's willing to back us up if we needed it. There's no shame in you needing to do that as well. In fact, it's better, if you can find talented people to share some of the workload with." 

Eli squeezes Umi's hand, where she's turned the fingers over against her own, pressing their hands together palm to palm. Umi blushes at the intimate pressure of it, unable to help glancing away. 

"You'll manage," Eli says, patting the back of Umi's hand. "Someone as disciplined as you always does. Just remember, there's nothing wrong with asking for a little help." 

"I'll... Try and remember that," Umi says, voice a little faint to her own ears. 

Eli is watching her, so patiently and calmly that Umi is _certain_ Eli knows, knows that Umi relies on _her_ for comfort as much as advice, that Umi trusts her to be the help she requires in holding herself up before her responsibilities. She simply isn't yet brave enough to confess as much outright. 

"Let me get the tea," Eli says after another moment, releasing Umi's hand and rising from the couch. 

Eli might know, but she isn't going to press the matter. Umi is immensely grateful to her for that, too — as much as she treasures Eli for her thoughtful perspective and kind words, she treasures her all the more for her patience. Eli will let Umi settle into her new position in her own time, on the student council as well as within Eli's own life. 

"Thank you," Umi says, before Eli has moved away into the kitchen. 

She means for the advice, for the patience, for everything, just as much as the tea. Eli glances back at her with a small, knowing smile, and murmurs, "It isn't any problem at all." 

-

-


	5. Maki :: Starfire Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt this was written from is: "This is the secret of the stars, I tell myself. In the end, we are alone. No matter how close you seem, no one else can touch you." (yeah, I did the same quote twice, since it was prompted for Eli and for Maki and I had ideas for both.)

-

It's cold, in Maki's backyard, and something inside her whispers _You should have worn a sweater._

Goosebumps rise on her arms and a shiver runs over her skin, but she does nothing to counter it. Looking up at the wheeling arc of the heavens, that chill only makes her feel a little bit closer to the distant vacuum of space. It wouldn't be the same if she bundled up — it wouldn't be the same if she did this with anyone's company save her own. 

Maki walks farther out across the grass, the frigid air sending her legs to prickling underneath her nightgown, and tilts her head up toward the sky. Her mother was more than willing to buy her a telescope, which she'd calibrated with the utmost of care and uses to view the planets when they pass through her portion of the hemisphere. But as lovely as the telescope is, there's just something about watching the stars with her naked eye.

They're beautiful, remote, distant enough to be removed from the pettiness of her peers' existence.

There was a time, once, when Maki longed to be a star. At such a distance, no one would see her mistakes. Nothing would touch her, and she could simply look down upon the travails of everyday life without risk of error, or embarrassment, or letting her emotions get in the way. A star had no cares save to arc through the heavens, pretty as a gem and just as removed. 

Maki isn't so certain she wants that, any more. 

Since joining mu's she's had more company than she quite knows what to do with. The bell will ring for lunch at school and there will be Rin, insisting they eat outside; or Hanayo, offering Maki one of her rice balls; or Nozomi, smiling too knowingly as Rin tugs her from one side and Hanayo gently plies her from the other. It's a drastic change, from spending her lunch hour in the music room, playing the piano for an audience of none. 

It's a little overwhelming, having so much warmth bubbling up around her. Anywhere Maki looks there's someone pressing in beside her, getting close to her, working their way inside the neat, remote bubble she'd crafted for herself. Part of her can't help but push it aside, squirm away from the affection until its once more held at arm's length. 

The thing about stars is, no matter how close they look, little points of light hovering so they're nearly touching, the greatest part of them is still eternities away. As much as Maki wants to come closer, down from the private place in the heavens she's built for herself, part of her cannot let go of her starfire heart. 

Part of her cannot deny the value of being where no one else can touch you, because when one cannot be touched, one also cannot he hurt. 

-

-


	6. Eli/Nico :: Hard Work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt this was written from is: "It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice." - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

-

"Eli," Nico says, as she lets herself into the apartment and flops down on Eli's couch. "I'm so _tired._ Don't you want a cup of tea? I _really_ want a cup of tea." 

From the other side of the couch, Eli slants Nico a wry, disbelieving look. But Nico isn't having it. She doesn't even notice, her arms spread out beside her and all her limbs gone limp as noodles, her head tilted back against the couch cushions and staring up at the ceiling. 

"I have studying to do," Eli says, turning her face back to her book. There's a smile beginning to pull at her lips, but she hides it behind the pages. "If you'd like a cup of tea, you know where the kettle is." 

"But I'm _tired_ ," Nico protests. 

She pulls herself up from her sprawl, dragging herself closer to Eli on the couch and hovering her nose just over the edge of Eli's book. For a moment, Eli chooses not to acknowledge the invasion of her space, but it's difficult, and soon she has no choice but to look up into Nico's pleading face. 

"You didn't think it would be easy, did you?" Eli asks.

"Of _course_ not," Nico says. "Of course fame and fortune never is. And I am very much prepared to work to make a name for myself! It's... Just..." She trails off, pouting and glancing away to the side, her cheeks puffing up with her frustration. "After everything with mu's, I did think it would be easier than this." 

At that admittance, Eli relents altogether. She folds her book closed and places it aside on the end table, uncrossing her knees and giving Nico her full attention. The smile on her lips is gentle, sympathetic, as she reaches out to tuck a stray lock of Nico's bangs back behind her ear. 

"There are other things you can do with your future," Eli tells her. "Things besides being an idol. It's what I'm doing, after all." 

Nico only pouts harder, blowing out all the air she'd held in her cheeks and rolling her eyes as if Eli has said the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard in her life. "Of _course_ there are other things I could do, but I don't _want_ to do those things. I've wanted this longer than anything, until we formed mu's together, and then we had it. I worked hard with those songs, that choreography, that _everything,_ I _worked_ to have that place on the stage and if I did it once _I can do it again._ " 

"But it's hard," Eli surmises, "and you're tired." 

"I'm _exhausted,_ " Nico agrees, flopping again back against the couch. "I deserve better than this! I deserve hot tea, and a delicious dinner, and a _foot rub._ " She sticks her toes up, from where her heels are planted against the floor. "Why won't someone rub my feet, Eli?" 

"I wonder why," Eli says. "After all, with an invitation like that, who could resist?" 

Nico leans up just enough to shoot Eli a dirty look, before melting again into the couch. In a very small, aggrieved voice, she points out, "A good girlfriend would rub my feet. Or if she's not going to rub my feet, she would at _least_ start the kettle going, and tell me I've worked hard, and that it's all going to pay off one day." 

"If it's going to pay off for anyone," Eli says, "I do think it would pay off for you." 

Nico laughs, a startled sound that bursts out of her so that even she appears surprised by it. Eli is less so, smiling to herself and starting to get up from the couch. Nico pulls herself together enough to sit up and watch Eli walk off into the tiny apartment kitchen. 

"You're doing it?" Nico asks, confused. 

"With an invitation like that," Eli repeats. "Who could refuse? And anyway, you're right. You are working very hard. I do... Admire that. I don't think I know anyone else who is more loyal to her dreams than you." 

Nico is silent then, too blindsided by the offhand compliment to make any further flippant comments. Eli smiles to herself, and does as she's said, putting the kettle on for her tired girlfriend who is working her hardest to become a star in her own right, just as bright as mu's had been with them all shining together.

-

-


	7. Nico/Maki :: Cute Habits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt this was written from is: "Nico knows about Maki's cute (embarrassing) habits," or more specifically, [this screenshot](http://i.imgur.com/bSab1tM.jpg) taken from the game.

-

"Isn't it a little bit cold, to be eating outside?" 

Maki doesn't look up, when she recognizes the voice immediately for who it is. Instead she keeps her back pressed to the tree she has selected to lean against, dipping her chopsticks into her bento box and popping another bite of food into her mouth. As she chews, she hears the soft "hmph," from behind her, and the rustle of clothing shifting while its owner moves to sit down.

Of course Nico of all people wouldn't be deterred by a little radio silence. 

"I like it," Maki says. "Fresh air does a body good, so what if I want to eat my lunch on the lawn?" 

"That might be so," Nico agrees, "but it's lonely out here, when everyone else is eating inside! I'll keep you company. It's the least I can do, so you won't have to be alone." 

Maki snorts, softly to herself, but it doesn't stop her from tilting her bento box a little to one side. Nico reaches out, plucking one of the scalloped carrots from its compartment with her bare fingers. For a long moment there is silence again, marked by Nico's thoughtful chewing and Maki's quiet examination of the rest of her lunch. 

"It's not bad," Nico says, settling in more closely beside Maki. "Definitely better than last time!" 

Maki blushes, and glances away. 

Nico laughs, a bright, high sound, loud enough to cut the air but not ringing out unkindly. "Isn't that what you wanted? I know all about your cute little habits." 

"It's n-nothing," Maki protests, staring stubbornly down at her lunch before popping another bite into her own mouth.

"Isn't it?" Nico asks, smugly enough that Maki can just _hear_ the grin that's starting to stretch Nico's lips. "It's nothing to be shy about."

"I'm not shy!" Maki snaps, jerking her head up. "I just made myself lunch, that's all." 

"Uh huh, and didn't your housekeeper, or whoever, always used to make lunch for you?" Nico asks. "But now you're making it for yourself. Because you _want_ to get better at doing stuff like this." 

Nico reaches out, dipping her fingers again into Maki's bento box, this time to taste the fish. Maki freezes, indignant and yet unwilling to yank the food away from her. As much as she might protest Nico's knowing assessments, she _wants_ Nico to try her food. Nico would know better than any of their friends whether it's good cooking. 

Nico chews, quietly, and Maki catches it out of the corner of her eye when Nico again starts to smile.

"I told you," she says, less smugly than before. "It's good. You're not too bad at this, you know." 

"Th-Thanks," Maki says, pushing herself to accept the compliment. 

"And if you make me lunch, I might not even mind eating outside with you, no matter how cold it gets!" Nico adds. 

" _That_ isn't what's happening here," Maki protests, snatching the bento back and away. "If you want a free lunch, find someone else to mooch off of." 

But she relents in the end, finding it nicer than she'd say, to have someone to share lunch with. 

-

-


	8. Hanayo/Maki :: Time Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt this was written from is: "Maki and Hanayo spending time together cause they're in love. My needs are simple."

-

As the last notes of the song fade from the air, Maki pulls her hands back from the piano's keys, allowing silence to once again overtake the room. She'll need to make a few additional changes to the sheet music, but for the most part, the song has taken on just the shape she wanted. 

She glances across the room, catching Hanayo's eye where she's seated at an empty table. 

"I-I'm sorry," Maki says, glancing away again toward the piano. "This must be terribly boring for you." 

"It isn't!" Hanayo protests immediately, her hands coming up to wave off Maki's words. But the motions slow as quickly as they'd begun, and when she returns her hands to the table, her gaze descends in favor of looking down at them. "I like spending time with you, no matter what you want to do." 

"I'm not sure this should rightly count as 'spending time,'" Maki says. But her head lifts again, eyes drawn to the shuffling of papers Hanayo is performing on the desk. "We aren't even doing anything together." 

"I don't mind," Hanayo insists, more firmly than she usually is. "I like listening to you play, and it isn't hard to find things to keep my hands busy. That's why I like origami." 

She holds up a paper crane, one of several figures she must have folded while Maki was making revisions to her song. The creases of the paper are crisp and neat, sharply outlining the crane's shape where it rests atop Hanayo's palm. Maki makes a hum of recognition, and Hanayo takes that as invitation to continue.

"It's neat, don't you think, being able to transform a piece of paper into something else? I could... Show you, you know. If you wanted. If you're done with the piano for today." 

Maki fidgets on the bench, wondering whether _she_ truly has the ability to turn anything into something else, even something as inconsequential as a piece of paper. But then she rises, moving across the room and taking up a seat at the table beside Hanayo. 

"I'd like that," she says. 

Hanayo bumps her shoulder gently against Maki's shoulder, replying, "I'd like that, too." 

She passes Maki her own sheet of origami paper, and Maki allows herself to rest her hands atop it. Her eyes are on Hanayo's hands, watching as she draws a second sheet of paper towards herself, watching as she demonstrates the first of a series of folds. She's patient, waiting for Maki to copy her motions with her own hands.

"You want to make certain to crease everything firmly!" Hanayo says, as she performs the next fold for Maki to imitate. "That's the key to good origami. Really decisive creases! You don't want to be halfhearted about it." 

"Oh?" Maki says, a smile starting to tug at her lips.

Hanayo blushes, stumbling over the gentle jab at her personality. But her hands on the paper don't falter, smoothly executing the next fold in the sequence, and finishing off the assemblage of her crane. 

"Once you learn how to do something," Hanayo says softly, "it isn't so bad to keep doing it. What matters is learning, and knowing you're doing it the very best way that you can." 

Maki finishes imitating her, and holds her own crane up for inspection.

"It's lopsided," she says, skeptically. 

"It's _unique_ ," Hanayo corrects her, taking the crane out of Maki's hands. "See the way its head tilts a little bit to the side? It's like it's looking at you. I think it's cute." 

"If you say so..." Maki says, not entirely convinced. 

"I do," Hanayo pronounces, and then is silent a moment. "You don't... mind doing this sort of thing with me, do you? I know... Origami is kind of a silly hobby..." 

"I don't mind," Maki says, smiling. "I like spending time with you, no matter what you want to do." 

-

-


	9. Nico/Maki :: Fashion choices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt this was written from is: "You've got it all wrong, you're wrong, you're so wrong!" or more specifically, [this screenshot](http://i.imgur.com/JBGu2jY.jpg) taken from the game, which I took significant liberties with because I knew what I wanted to write. And hey, it keeps Rin in the picture.

-

"I didn't realize you liked things like this so much," Maki says, glancing back at Nico as she stands before the rack with all of mu's various outfits from their past shows. "Everything you usually wear is so... Cute." 

"I _am_ cute," Nico says. "I'm Nico-Nico-nii, the cutest idol in the world! And I wasn't looking at any of those old things, anyway, don't be ridiculous. Those shows are old news, passe, I've moved on to bigger and cuter things!" 

"Oh?" Maki says, deviously pulling out the sleeve of her old suit jacket to stretch across her chest. "So you wouldn't want to put these back on, with me?" 

"O-Of course not," Nico protests, turning up her nose in a huff. 

"You would have wanted to wear the wedding dress," Maki surmises, "if not for being set on convincing Rin she should do it." 

"It's not—" Nico starts, her voice scaling up before she forces her volume back down. "It's not that I wanted to wear that dress, Rin-chan was of course very beautiful when we performed, it was simply that— _that_ —" she gestures at the sleeve of the jacket Maki is still holding onto "—isn't at _all_ the usual sort of cuteness deserved of Nico-Nico-nii!" 

"Hmph," Maki huffs, dropping the jacket sleeve and moving instead to cross her arms over her chest. "You don't think I looked cute in it?" 

"That isn't—!" Nico protests. "That's not what I was saying at _all,_ if you would only listen to me. There's beautiful dresses, like the one Rin-chan wore in that performance, and there are dapper clothes like that which might be _fine_ for someone like you, and then there's _cute._ Which is what I am, and what all of my outfits should be." 

"But you do like the suit," Maki repeats, "and things like this, when they're... What did you just say? On someone like me?" 

For a long moment Nico simply stares at her, frustrated with the way Maki is insisting on beleaguering a point Nico considers to have been long since made. Then it hits her what Maki is _really_ getting at and she draws back, pulling her arms in toward herself and turning up her nose. "I meant what I said. Stuff like that is fine, on someone like you." 

"And you like the way it looks, on someone like me," Maki says. "Or _on me._ It's okay to pay me a compliment, Nico." 

"That's so..." Nico starts to say. "That's wrong, you've got it wrong, and if you'd only like for someone to tell you that you're cute, it's not that I don't understand — people like you must not hear it nearly as often as me — but that's... It's just... I wasn't! You're wrong!" 

Maki leans forward, pushing into Nico's space with her arms still crossed over her chest. "Am I wrong?" 

Nico freezes, pinned beneath Maki's low-lidded, disapproving stare. She laughs for a moment, high and nervous and like a failed attempt at scoffing, so the sound quickly dies out into tiny, apologetic coughs. "I wasn't saying you're _not_ cute..." 

Maki waits, arms no less crossed, eyes no less narrowed. 

"...It looked good on you," Nico finally says, in a small voice. "Stuff like that does. You have this regal sort of bearing, so those kinds of clothes suit you." 

Maki's shoulders relax with the victory of having wrung this honesty out of Nico, her posture loosening and her arms sliding back to her sides. Her expression softens as well, a bit of a smile rising to her lips, before she reaches out to again pull the suit jacket towards herself from the closet. 

"I thought so," she murmurs. "I really liked it." 

For a moment Nico remains tense beside her, before the moment passes, and she steps in toward Maki's side. "You might not be as cute as Nico-Nico-nii, but of course nobody is, and — I do think you look good. In things that are more your style." 

-

-


End file.
